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bibliomania_express 's review for:
The Decagon House Murders
by Yukito Ayatsuji
The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji is a delightfully tricky take on Christie's classic And Then There Were None. A group of students in a Mystery Club are picked off one by one while staying in a decagon shaped house on an island where a brutal crime occurred six months before.
I love the way this book plays with the genre, both by referencing Christie's book directly and through the chosen nicknames of the characters, which are all crime novelists or detectives. Names become very important to the story.
I also liked the back and forth of the events on the island vs the events on the mainland, where an ex-club member is investigating after receiving a mysterious threatening letter. This split gave the plotline more dynamics while introducing nuance, red herrings, and plahing with timeline.
This is one of those mysteries where I had suspicions and my instincts said something was off, but the narrative manages to wiggle out of my grasp. I wouldn't really say this is a fair play mystery due to certain elements of the solution, but a lot of the clues are there.
I love the way this book plays with the genre, both by referencing Christie's book directly and through the chosen nicknames of the characters, which are all crime novelists or detectives. Names become very important to the story.
I also liked the back and forth of the events on the island vs the events on the mainland, where an ex-club member is investigating after receiving a mysterious threatening letter. This split gave the plotline more dynamics while introducing nuance, red herrings, and plahing with timeline.
This is one of those mysteries where I had suspicions and my instincts said something was off, but the narrative manages to wiggle out of my grasp. I wouldn't really say this is a fair play mystery due to certain elements of the solution, but a lot of the clues are there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder
Minor: Suicide, Death of parent